No such deal to take Nauru refugees: PM

WELLINGTON: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has shot down reports New Zealand has agreed to accept 80 refugees from Nauru.

And she says there is no truth to a report New Zealand is blocking visa applications for hundreds more refugees on Nauru.

A report in The Australian yesterday said Nauru President Baron Waqa had asked New Zealand to grant visitor visas for up to 450 Nauru refugees so they could travel to New Zealand.

He is also reported to have personally brokered a deal for New Zealand to take a special cohort of 80 refugees from Nauru.

But Ms Ardern, speaking from Singapore where she is attending the East Asia Summit, said there was no such deal.

‘‘It’s incorrect to say that there is some kind of agreement for 80 specific individuals . . . to take residence or visit.’’

She also said there had been no specific requests for visitor visas from refugees in Nauru.

But Ms Ardern did not think the report amounted to a cheap shot from the Australian Government, which has been under pressure over her repeated offer for New Zealand to take 150 refugees from Nauru and Manus Island.

Australia has not accepted the offer, and attempts to push legislation through the Australian Parliament that would result in the offer being accepted have so far failed.

The visa requests reported in The Australian may have been referring to April 2016, when the Nauru Government asked all Pacific Island Forum countries to recognise refugee travel documents issued by Nauru as Nauruan passports.

Immigration NZ visa services manager Michael Carley said the 2016 request did not ask about whether refugees could visit New Zealand on holiday visas.

‘‘We are not aware of any current visa applications from Naurubased refugees.’’

Ms Ardern said even if a refugee from Nauru was granted a visitor visa and came to New Zealand, they could not stay as a refugee.

‘‘Tourist visas have specific parameters around length of stay.’’

Nauru Government officials said yesterday Mr Waqa was not on Nauru and was unavailable to comment.

The Australian reported Mr Waqa said refugees were encouraged to travel outside Nauru, but not to Australia.

‘‘But some have travelled to Fiji on visas. We give them a Nauru passport, a special passport. And so they are free to move around.’’

The report also said the visa requests from Nauru were accompanied by a note from the United Nations advocating for refugees’ rights to travel outside the country in which they were processed.

UNHCR spokeswoman Catherine Stubberfield said in Canberra convention travel documents were frequently used by refugees to travel internationally to their new homes.

But they did not provide ‘‘an unfettered right of entry’’, which remained the sovereign right of respective states. — NZME